I recently had the privilege of contributing liner notes for the online release of "Eternal Troubadour," a tribute song to Tiny Tim written & performed by Harve Mann. You can download it here.
Here are my liner notes as they appear at cdbaby.com:
The Tiny Tim story has got to be one of, if not THE, greatest underdog story of all time; Herbert B. Khaury, a social misfit from an unglamorous part of New York City endured nearly twenty years of discouragement and ridicule only to rise above it all and become, albeit briefly, the most famous man in the world under the ironic, given his size and larger than life persona, name Tiny Tim.
Overlooked is the fact that even though his mainstream successes largely ceased in the early 1970's, Tiny Tim remained one of the most instantly recognizable personalities in show business and a pop culture icon. Some have pointed out that he had to take gigs at dingy nightclubs and perform stints with the circus, but the flip side to that was the next night he could be playing a venue as prestigious as the Sydney Opera House (which he did on September 5, 1982, over ten years after his star had supposedly faded) and he never had to retire from show business. To jaded skeptics, Tiny Tim was merely a one-hit-wonder who's career floundered after a few years at the top. To the intellectually honest, he was a physical embodiment of the American Dream.
All this notwithstanding, Tiny Tim never forgot the many years he spent scrapping around Greenwich Village, trying to find his ticket to stardom. Throughout his career, he championed underdogs like him and used whatever clout he had to help many overcome the obstacles of breaking into the show business mainstream. In some artists, such as Isadore Fertel, Tiny recognized their appeal as a novelty. With Harve Mann, however, Tiny recognized his potential as a musician, performer, and songwriter; booking Mann for many years as his opening act, conductor for his own shows, and recording several songs which Mann wrote.
In the very long process of writing my to-be-released biography of Tiny, Eternal Troubadour: The Improbable Life of Tiny Tim, I have interviewed close to 100 people with varying affiliations to Tiny Tim. Among these, Harve Mann sticks out as one of a handful who it is safe to say was one of Tiny's true friends and respected collaborators. This is clear in Tiny's enthusiastic performances on his versions of Mann's own songs (See “Perhaps in the Next Life,” “Haribee,” “Shine Your Love,” and “Keeping My Troubles to Myself”) and their 20 year relationship.
The kinship which developed between these two artists comes through very strong when listening to “Eternal Troubadour (The Ballad of Tiny Tiim).” In a time when Tiny Tim is fast becoming known to younger audiences for having one of his songs, “Tip-Toe Thru' the Tulips With Me,” featured in the 2010 hit horror film Insidious, Mann's song touches on all the important points as to why he should be known for so much more. In the song, Mann sings, “The Beatles and Dylan dug him/How cool is that?” to which I say, “Tiny Tim dug Harve Mann/How cool is that?”
Justin A. Martell, Tiny Tim Biographer
New York City, December, 2011
